Progress and a Puffin

Work on the island has been progressing well since the last
update, with the island feeling a lot busier in terms of numbers of birds
present as well as numbers of birds making an attempt at breeding.

The work on razorbills has now come to an end, with
retrieved GPS devices providing a wealth of data illustrating the foraging
distributions of these birds. Many of the razorbills are now finally on chicks,
meaning that sightings of birds bringing in fish are becoming increasingly common. Hopefully the SCAN ringing group will soon be
out to ring these chicks (weather permitting of course). The next species to be
targeted for GPS tracking is the Common Guillemot, with this work hopefully
taking place next week. Following on
from guillemot tracking we will aim to carry out tracking work on kittiwakes.

The kittiwakes seem to be doing well, with a lot more birds
now on eggs. Given how late the birds have been in settling down, it is
encouraging to see a large proportion of them attempting to breed rather than
deferring their breeding effort until next year. The remote cameras are proving
reliable, with images such as the one below being taken every four minutes
around the clock.

Remote camera image of one of the Kittiwake study sites

On our latest trip to the island we marked some kittiwakes
with a small band of yellow dye. This will allow individuals to be identified
from the remote cameras, further enhancing the data we collect. Through being
able to separate individuals in the pair, we will be able to identify the
effort that each individual puts in to raising the chick. It will be
interesting to see if pairs which share duties more equally are those with the
greatest breeding success.

The larger gull species remain ever conspicuous on the
island. Their constant haranguing of us researchers is all for the purpose of
protecting their chicks, which are becoming increasingly noticeable as they
approach fledging. The chicks are generally
very well hidden, especially when very young, however you do get the sense that
some seem to think that they are better concealed than they really are, as
illustrated in the two images below.

Gull chick hiding behind a remote camera tripod

Another highlight from a recent trip was the capture of an
adult Puffin which was fitted with a ring by Lucy Ryan. No doubt this made her
day! The puffins have increased in numbers in recent weeks, with many more now being
seen around the cliffs. Whether or not these are breeding individuals is
unclear, but the fact that they are using the island is definitely good news.

Puffin being ringed

Aside from the birds, a number of seals frequent the island,
with this particularly inquisitive adult female watching me as I carried out my
work the other day. A healthy number of seals haul out on the North Eastern
side of the island and can be seen foraging around the island. No doubt the
number of sightings will increase later in the season when it comes to their
turn to breed.